Monthly Archives: August 2009

So a friend of ours bought a lilac tree last fall and never used it..and when we were over at her place she asked us if we wanted it as it had been sitting in a pot all winter then spring then summer and she still didn’t think she was even going to plant it..of course we said yes! I had a lilac tree in my yard when I was kid and it looked really nice..plus when it blooms it is really fragrant…so we took the little bad boy home with us. We have been busy working on our flower beds and other projects so we are not really at a point where we have room for a tree..so it will have to wait..hopefully the tree will do fine in the meantime..I am going to keep it out of the direct sun while we wait to help keep it alive..and water and love of course!

﻿So A*, J* and I were planning to come out to the camp and watch some shooting stars as part of the annual Persied meteor shower..and I mentioned to my brother and sister on the weekend and they wanted to come out too..so tonight we had a gaggle of people out for supper and a bonfire. We had burgers and ‘spider-dogs’ ( hot dogs with split ends ) and I started a fire. Soon it got dark and the occasional meteor would shoot across the sky…it was so dark that the kids were having no trouble seeing them..really neat. It makes me happy that the kids can come out and have a fire and see something spectacular like these shooting stars..its not something that you see today and we sometimes lose perspective on our place in the universe. Plus sometimes kids spend so much time inside doing stuff that they don’t really get exposed to nature as much as they should. Me, I have always loved nature..as a kid I would spend all of my afternoons in the swamp and doing similar things..that is one of the major reasons I wanted to go off-grid in the firstplace..to be closer to nature in both a geological and philosopical perspective. Before there was TV and video games the stars were a form of entertainment..constellations and stories..the original soap operas!! Well..if that is the case then this round of Perseids must have been more like a Superbowl!

Anyway..after a while the kids needed to go home to bed so A*, J* and I sat in our lawn chairs and watched the shooting stars..some distant..some like bright green explosions directly in front of us. We watched for a hour then went inside to bed..as good as they were early they were supposed to be amazing at 3AM..so we set the alarm. 3Am rolled around and the alarms goes off but it has clouded over in the meantime and there are no more meteors to see. All in all pretty cool..I cannot wait until next year!